A lovely idea and so very beautifully presented it keeps you hooked through every page until the end.

A story of people whose lives don't work out the way they were supposed to, and fate's delightful way of providing a happy ending for them all.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It moves with a soft rhythm, keeping those pages turning deep into the night, as pennies begin to drop and connections are made. It hits all the right notes with its mingling of past and present, its entwining of mystery, history, the paranormal and the very normal.

The story of three interwoven, but separate lives.

Ben, Lucy and Clare are of different generations, but their lives have a connection in the most surprising way and this develops gradually as the story progresses.

Ben is the sole survivor of a terrible crime in which his mother and many others are brutally murdered. He is only six years old and the trauma of the event forces him to escape into another world and blot out the event which changed his life. Lucy also finds herself at a personal crossroads. She is a doctor in a trauma department who treats Ben when he is first brought in and finds herself strangely drawn to the boy. Clare is old and in a care home. She has a lifetime of secrets and up to now has been reluctant to talk about them. This suddenly changes when she meets another inmate, Gloria, and her extraordinary life is finally recorded. As each of these stories develops, a connection is revealed until all the strands are eventually pulled together in the moving final chapters.

This is a beautifully written study of three lives - one that is just beginning, one in the middle and one moving towards the end. The story of Clare is particularly brilliantly observed, as her hard and brutal life unfolds, revealing her sheer determination for survival against all the odds. Lucy, the ER doctor, finds her escape in emergency situations and caring for others, while disastrously neglecting her own personal relationships. Ben finds the only way he can survive is to inhabit another world and another life.

Jodi Picoult has been quoted on the cover as saying, “Every now and then I come across a book I wish I had written…” I tend to agree. This is a tender and touching story treating the unique situations of each of these lives with great understanding and awareness of the human situation.

I would highly recommend this book.

Jane

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

This book had me snagged- It niggled and niggled at me during every waking moment that I wasn’t reading it. I loved Clare’s story. To me it was her story, with the others just supplementing it. I’m not sure the author invested as much herself into the other characters as she did Clare but their story was so integral to hers that didn’t matter to me.

I enjoyed this story and the interweaving of stories across the different characters and generations. It was a well told and enjoyable read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 enjoyable stars.

This was an great break from the norm for me, I different genre, a different style of book.

Overall I enjoyed the book, it was interesting spanning different time periods and told from different points of view.

However the 3 stars reflects for me the disjointed nature of the chapters told from different perspectives; they lacked a sense of flow.

Equally the Lucy chapters were far too descriptive regarding medical procedures and the treatment of patients. I felt a light disappointment when I had to leave a Ben/Leo and Clare chapter for example.

However I see the many 4 and 5 star reviews so maybe this one just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I very much enjoyed The Possible World. Although dealing with the strange idea of reincarnation, I found the book believable, contemporary and challenging (in a good way.) It is incredibly well written and I felt immersed In the worlds of the four main characters, one of whom was a 6 year old boy. I find novels often struggle to provide a realistic ‘voice of the child’ but in this case both children in the book were written in an incredibly touching and sympathetic way. I was keen to find out what happened and wanted Ben (Leo) to find a happy ending.
I would recommend this book as something different. It is challenging and yet comforting. Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Initial thoughts:
I really loved the three stories tied together, and (unusually) I was equally invested in all of them. I really enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the ER room although I understand why others didn't - they didn't add much to the story but from a personal interest point of view I was fascinated by the level of detail Liese included and liked that she didn't shy away from technical terms or slang.

Although the opening scene was gripping and intriguing, I thought it had little to do with the rest of the book. I would quite enjoy reading a completely different story (thriller-like) that stems from this scene, as it almost felt like this was what it was meant to be. Nonetheless, a very enjoyable read.

Ben is six years old and has been traumatised by an horrific event that leaves his mother dead. He is alone in the world and no-one really knows what to do with him. Lucy is on duty when Ben is brought to the hospital. She feels drawn to the boy, but is caught up in her own emotional turmoil. Finally, Clare, who carries more secrets than any woman should. She seeks solace in a life of isolation. But circumstances bring these three together and secrets come tumbling out, changing all of their lives forever.

This novel follows three characters whose lives become interwoven. The novel starts in an unexpectedly brutal way, and I was unsure whether I wanted to continue reading as a result of this. However, there was little further violence and I was glad I pushed on with reading it.

I found the characters believable and I particularly enjoyed reading about Leo and Clare. I found that the chapters that focused on Lucy (a doctor) were very medical, and although this was interesting to read, I found that at times it moved the focus away from getting to know Lucy, and was more about her profession. I really enjoyed the chapters that focused on Clare, and I thought her character was very well developed. The author has described her in a brilliant way and I found her very likeable. Leo's chapters are, at times, written through the eyes of a child. I expected to find this annoying but they were well written and I thought a good representation of the way a child might perceive their situation or circumstances.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. It moved at a good pace and was an emotional, realistic read. The author managed to blend the three (or four) stories very well, and I found the ending satisfying.

I didn`t know what to expect when I started the book. This combination of three stories could be challenging, I was not sure I will like it. Another surprise was that only a first chpater was called Ben, all the others were called Leo. What was the reason? The first two chapters were also a kind of brutal and I was really not sure, if I wanted to continue reading. I´m very happy I did. The story of the three characters was very interesting and i was sucked in and wanted to know when and how it combines. It was easier for Clare and Leo after a while, the description of their lives going paralell to each other. Lucy was the uncertain part of the novel (as well as Ben). I was really enjoying the quessing, how the plot would go on. The ending is very satisfying and fits the whole story. I very much liked Clare, she was my favourite character for her independence, I could imagine the reasons for her being so. But the changes she want through made her also the most interesting character for me. I really enjoyed the book ver much und would highly recommend it.

This is a book for romantic believers in a love which can transcend generations. I could have read about these characters forever; I really didn’t want their stories to end!

After his mother is killed, six year old Ben tells people that his real name is Leo, and that he has another mother. But no one believes him. Doctor Lucy is struggling to come to terms with her marriage breakup when she first meets the little boy. Clare is approaching her 100th birthday, and decides to tell someone the story of her life, before it’s too late. Three separate characters, whose stories (past, present or future) are interlinked. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

If only this had just been Clare’s story, and Leo’s story, and their relationship I’d have been so happy. I’d have been delighted if there had been much, much more of Clare’s story and none of Lucy’s or Ben’s, and certainly none of the hospital procedure and hypnotherapy used to link them to the main action.

This author is a great storyteller but for me the structure of this novel felt contrived and distracted from her main achievements, Clare and Leo - strong, credible characters I came to care for. Some lovely writing here, too. I was struck particularly by the image of Clare’s younger selves still existing in her consciousness:

‘We leave shadows of ourselves in the places where we change…..They’re all with me still, an abandoned regiment, flickering separately in the back of my mind, as if I am still living all of those lives at once.’

So a patchy experience for me. I’m glad I read this book but I’d have difficulty wholeheartedly recommending it

Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to read this book. It was, at times, a sad read and it is clear the book was well-researched. Clare grew on me as a character as the book progressed. Well-written and it stays with you a long time after you have finished it

Posted to Goodreads 05 March 2018.

This lovely but sad book set in Rhode Island, tells the story of Lucy, overworked Emergency resident, six year old prodigy Ben, Leo, a small for his age 11 year old Leo, given up by his mother to live in an orphanage, and Clare, the elderly resident of a nursing home.

Lucy, who has recently separated from her husband and is on the verge of burnout from the relentless demands of her job, meets Ben when he is brought into the ER as the only survivor of a horrific mass killing at his friends birthday party. His mother, who also died there, happens to be a new friend of Lucy’s. Admitted to the child psych ward with traumatic amnesia, Ben, who insists his name is Leo, reveals a story under hypnosis about life in an orphanage decades ago. Meanwhile Clare, who has isolated herself for years, decides to tell her life story to a new resident, Gloria, including how she came to live in a cottage by a cemetery and know a little boy called Leo...

This was elegantly written, and I guessed early on that the author must be a doctor, as both the medical details, and the descriptions of grinding Emergency shifts were spot on - it’s been 18 years since I worked in an emergency department, but it brought it all flooding back.
Initially I was only interested in Ben and Lucy’s stories: the author did such a good job portraying Clare as a withdrawn misanthropic curmudgeon that I felt repelled by her, exactly what she was trying to achieve, but as she begins to open up, probably because of the only grudgingly accepted antidepressant they bully her into taking, her story became the most compelling of all.

I don’t normally like reliance on coincidence in plots, but if willing to accept a slight supernatural twist, was happy with the concept of the characters being slowly but inevitably drawn together by some magical force, with even minor characters all appearing at the right time to tie the threads together.

The blurb has a quote from Jodi Picoult praising it, and in some ways it is similar, but I thought actually superior to the Picoult books I have read. Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. One final comment: the NG page cover art features a gorgeous image of a multi coloured bird, while the GR page shows a dull image of a house on a hill. I know I would be much more likely to buy a copy, particularly if it were a gift, if it had the beautiful cover.